Out of the Box

One of my goals for the new year is to take TIME to work on expressing my creativity.  I'm working through newsletters, blogs, and other sites to learn new techniques and styles.

One of my favorite blogs is creative Therapy.  They give one catalyst and then many different styles of "answers."  Their artists as well as their guest artist creates, according to their style, an answer to the catalyst.  The catalyst are thought provoking and the artists take such different views of the catalysts.  I'm truly inspired every time I visit.  If you use the catalyst to create your page (or other art forms) you can truly explore the depth of your heart through the art. 

I often learn by doing.  I would love to take some classes to learn more of the techniques like I saw in the original layout at creative Therapy.  The catalyst is "write a love note."  Anna Dabrowska-Pekocka's layout jumped out at me.  I loved all the different techniques she used on her page.  I did not come terribly close to her layout, but I did learn a lot in the process of trying to "lift" her page. 

My Layout

What I learned

• Patience...it was trial and error to make some of the inking and painting effects.  I did learn I want to know more about using paint on my layouts.  Not just examples but someone giving me the 1-2-3's with why.  I need to do more research.
• Improvise...when I did not have some of the products that Anna has included in her layout and had to find shapes and stamps to make it my own.  I loved so many elements in Anna's layout.  The more I studied her techniques and elements the more I understood and was able to substitute my own products.  Similar to what many of us did during Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas.  Aka.  I did not have dollies so I created my own decorative circle with Fiskars circle border punch.  Instead of the longer heart I went with Wendy Vecchi's heart stamp.
• Anna did not include a photo in her layout.  I can't do a layout without a photo, try as I may.  So I added a photo of me and my husband at the bottom.
• I loved doing the stamping and other elements and enhancing them with a little pen work.
• One of the best love letters I know is found in 1 Corinthians 13, Holy Bible.  I did my strip journaling based on that scripture. 
• It's okay to make a mistake, it's okay to make a mistake, it's okay to make MANY mistakes.  LOL  It's all part of the learning process.

It was a fun layout, especially with Valentines Day coming up on us.  Now I need to turn myself to making snow layouts.  I have very little practice with this!  Our rarity of getting snow here in the south is being challenged.  We had a decent snowfall at Christmas and I live in the midst of the latest snow storm that sweep through the southeast. The snow was crazy but the ice afterwards was all the the crazier!  Sheets and sheets of ice.  My front yard was a huge white sheet of ice.  Here are just a few photos...

Don't forget that Connie has a giveaway of Debby's Design Vintage Tags at crafty goodies.

Gratitude List
1.  safety through the snow and ice storm
2.  family fun
3.  nut case of a husband (in a good way)
4.  God's gift of laughter
5.  focus